The $1b reef fund announced by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last year was a “cynical rebadging exercise” undercut by its support for fossil fuel initiatives such as Adani’s Carmichael coalmine “that will spell catastrophe for the reef”, Zethoven said.

“There’s no doubt about that anymore,” she said. “They know what they are doing and they should come clean with the Australian public that they have no interest in the long-term survival of the Great Barrier Reef.

“To the average person on the street, that’s what it looks like. And if the government thinks that’s not the case, they’re out of touch.”

In December the government granted conditional approval for a $1b loan to Adani for its Carmichael coalmine and rail project in central Queensland, which could produce 60m tonnes of coal annually for 60 years.

Warmer ocean temperatures brought about by climate change are a key factor in coral bleaching. Polling suggests more than two-thirds of Australians believe the reef’s condition should be declared a national emergency.

Zethoven said the government had made “a very deliberate decision to go down the coal road”, despite it jeopardising the reef as well as 70,000 jobs in regional Queensland that depend on it.

John Rumney, a Port Douglas diving operator, said the commercial advantage to saving the reef went beyond jobs. Much of coastal Queensland was majorly invested in reef tourism, he said.

The government’s measures to save the reef were hypocrisy when it was actively supporting “the cause of the cancer – the worst cause”.

“It’s immoral that those of us who are making our living from a healthy environment are paying taxes to subsidise infrastructure that’s going to cause climate change in a major way for the next 50 years,” he said.